Refugee must leave without 'lost' family

Home Office ministers have been branded "callous" and "brutal" for ordering the deportation of an asylum seeker whose wife and daughter have been "lost" by immigration officials.

Aziz Ahmed's wife Husna and his five-year-old daughter Asya went missing over a year ago as they waited to claim asylum at immigration offices in Croydon, Surrey.

Mr Ahmed, a political refugee from Zanzibar, has been served a removal notice for this Saturday. As many as eight MPs, including the former cabinet minister Michael Portillo, have written to the Government demanding they let Mr Ahmed stay at least until his family is found.

Asylum groups have also contacted Lord Marshall, chairman of British Airways, to ask him not to allow Mr Ahmed to be put on the plane.

On 13 June last year, Mr Ahmed and his family went to Lunar House in Croydon to claim asylum after seeking refuge in a mosque. Immigration officials interviewed him while his wife and child waited in the corridor.

The mechanic was then taken to South Norwood police station without his family.

It has now emerged that the Home Office originally claimed the Ahmed family never went to the offices on 13 June, but were forced to back down after being shown police records detailing the visit as well as fingerprints and photographs taken on that date by immigration officials.

The police have also been criticised for taking nearly four months after the disappearance of Mrs Ahmed and Asya to start a missing persons inquiry. The inquiry was only launched after John Grieve, who was then head of the Met's racial and violent crimes task force, was brought in to intervene.

Mr Ahmed said officials showed no concern when he told them his wife and only child were missing. Instead, they suggested his wife could have wanted to run away from him.

"I married my wife out of love. I would prefer to die than to leave without my wife and child," said Mr Ahmed.

"I can't sleep. This month was my daughter's birthday but all I could do was to think about her and my wife."

Louise Christian, a leading human rights lawyer who has taken up Mr Aziz's case, said that he should at least be released from detention so that he could help look for his wife.

"The Home Office have consistently tried to cast aspersions on his [Mr Ahmed's] credibility," she said.

Dr Evan Harris, one of the MPs backing Mr Ahmed, said the Home Office had a moral responsibility towards him.

"I get the impression that the Home Office is trying to increase the level of deportations of asylum seekers and they are refusing to show the same compassion that previous governments have shown."

Beverley Hughes, the Home Office minister in charge of immigration, was unavailable for comment.